Miami HEAT/ Philadelphia 76ers 1st Round Preview

By Eric  Yearian
   
Miami has been the most closely watched of any team in the association this season, and for good reason. After acquiring LeBron James and Chris Bosh to team up with Dwyane Wade, all eyes were on South Beach, and most of those eyes were hoping the new look HEAT would falter, and, well, they did at times this season. With the playoffs about to start though, it’s the other powerhouses, the Lakers and the Celtics, who are faltering. The HEAT have come together and are playing quality basketball right now and finally showed an ability to win games against quality opponents by defeating the Celtics to essentially win themselves the second seed in the playoffs. By finishing second in the conference, the HEAT set up a series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
   
Philly started the season off very slowly, losing 13 of their first 16 games. Two of those losses came against, you guessed it, the HEAT. The 76ers have come a long way from where they were to begin the season. With the slow start, many people began openly questioning the offseason hiring of Coach Doug Collins, and there was even talk about the team considering blowing up the roster. They didn’t and the team ended up turning it around behind the great play of Andre Iguodala. The man they refer to as Iggy, has long been hounded by analysts saying that he can’t lead a team, and that he’d be the third best player on a true championship contender. While that may be true, he took a big step towards proving that notion wrong this season, by changing his game. Iggy had his worst scoring average since his 2nd year in the league, but upped his assist average and did his share of rebounding. It also helped that Elton Brand played much better than he has since signing with Philly a couple seasons ago.
   
This series features two teams who spent much of the season trying to figure out who they were as a team. Miami did under a closer microscope because of the big three, but Philly had plenty of questions to answer coming into this season as well. Philly totally reinvented itself on the fly, as Coach Collins transformed Iguodala from a scorer, to a facilitator with a better all-around game. Both teams had up-and-down seasons, but that’s where the comparisons end. From the second the words “talents to South Beach” left LeBron’s mouth, it was Championships or bust for the HEAT. Anything less than multiple Larry O’Brien trophies will be considered a failure for this team, and they face a lot of pressure to produce the first ring here in year one. For the 76ers, though, just avoiding the lottery can be seen as a victory. Philly didn’t come into the year with championship contender status, and earning the right to play more than 82 games will serve them well as they look to build on their success so that they can hopefully be title contenders in the future.

Key for the HEAT: The HEAT have enough of a talent advantage on Premature preseason celebration?Philadelphia that as long as the trio of James/Wade/Bosh is healthy and can stay out of foul trouble they’ll probably win this series. If the HEAT can find a fourth player to step up and play well on a consistent basis throughout the series the team will in all likelihood win in a short series. Even if Miami has to rely exclusively on the big three, they might be okay. In the most recent game between the two teams, Wade, James, and Bosh combined for 91 of the 111 HEAT points.

Key for the 76ers: It is imperative for the 76ers to pick one of the three main players from the HEAT and shut them down. It shouldn’t matter which, just as long as they are effective at shutting that player down. If they do that, they’ll have to just hope somebody like Mike Miller or Mike Bibby doesn’t step up to take that player’s place. If Philadelphia can do that (although that’s still a big if) they might be able to upset the HEAT. It will be very difficult for Miami to top Philly if they’re only getting production from two guys. In the first meeting of the season, LeBron James was forced into 9 turnovers, so don’t completely count the 76ers out, they just have to duplicate that effort throughout a seven game series.

X-Factors: For the HEAT, the X-factor is head coach Erik Spoelstra. Typically, I’m a big believer in the saying that “coaches don’t win games, coaches lose games.” However, in this series, I feel like Spoelstra could be very important for them. The HEAT players have the weight of a lot high expectations and there are a lot of people waiting for them to fail. Spoelstra will have to keep the HEAT from feeling all of that pressure. Where Spoelstra really comes in though is, what if Philly wins a game early? How will he and the HEAT respond? It’s not super likely that happens, but it’s also not out of the question, either.
    Evan Turner
The 76ers really have two X-Factors, Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes. Philly drafted Turner because they felt he could be a difference maker, and for much of the season he left them disappointed. He has a chance to vindicate himself in this series, although he will probably need to have a bigger impact on the defensive side of the ball. While Iggy is busy guarding Wade or James, Turner will need to use his length and athleticism to slow the other one down. While Turner is doing that, Hawes will need to take advantage of the HEAT’s lack of a dominant center. With the HEAT trotting out guys like Erick Dampier and Zydrunas Ilgauskas Hawes should also be able to get open looks from the outside and can punish the bigger, slower centers.

The Prediction: Let’s be honest here, there is no reason to believe the 76ers will be moving on to the second round of the playoffs. The HEAT just have to much talent, and when you take into account that they have the second best field goal percentage offense and defense in the entire league, it looks like the HEAT will make light work of the opponent here. I will give the 76ers a game in the series and pick the HEAT in 5.

Schedule:
Saturday, April 16: 76ers @ HEAT 3:30 Eastern
Monday, April 18: 76ers @ HEAT 7:00 Eastern
Thursday, April 21: HEAT @ 76ers 8:00 Eastern
Sunday, April 24: HEAT @ 76ers 1:00 Eastern
Wednesday. April 27: 76ers @ HEAT (If Needed)
Friday, April 29: HEAT @ 76ers (If Needed)
Sunday, May 1: 76ers @ HEAT (If Needed)